A Generative Study Of The Chinese Aspect Marker Qilai

The amount of research on the aspect marker qilai is not extensive,and its investigations from the formal syntactic perspective are rather rare.The limited research cannot provide a reasonable analysis of the syntactic position and derivation of qilai.This study makes an attempt to examine the aspect marker qilai and qilai constructions from the formal syntactic perspective.This study mainly looks into the syntactic and semantic properties of the aspect marker qilai and its co-occurrence with situation types,and provides an account of the syntactic mechanism behind the relevant phenomena,within the framework of the Minimalist Program and Cartographic Approach.This study proposes that qilai can not only be an inchoative aspect marker but also be a resultative aspect marker.As an inchoative aspect marker,qilai can co-occur with a subset of state situations and activity situations.Its semantic features are [+ a changing point],[+duration],and [+scalar degree/quantity],following Cai(2008).It is proposed that qi and lai are located separately in the syntactic structure.The former is the head of Phasal AspP,and the latter is the head of Viewpoint AspP.The basic pattern V-qilai and the separate pattern V-qi-NP-lai are derived in the same way roughly,both involving two kinds of PF movement including head-lowering and cliticizing.The co-occurrence of the inchoative qilai and other aspect markers are also analyzed.The inchoative qilai cannot co-occur with zai,zhe,and guo respectively because of the semantic and syntactic contradictions.The inchoative qilai can co-occur with the word-final le and the sentencefinal le.When it co-occurs with the word-final le,the word-final le denotes a change of state and occupies the light verb position;when it co-occurs with the sentence-final le,the sentence-final le denotes completion and occupies the head position of Perspectival AspP.As a resultative aspect marker,qilai can co-occur with a subset of activity situations.Its semantic features are [-directional movement],[-telic],and [+result].In the syntactic structure,qilai occupies the head position of Phasal AspP.The constructions with the resultative qilai,V-qilai and V-qilai-NP,are derived in the same way roughly involving head-lowering.The resultative qilai cannot co-occur with zai and zhe respectively because of semantic and syntactic contradictions.The resultative qilai can co-occur with the sentence-final le,the word-final le and guo respectively.When it co-occurs with the sentence-final le,the sentence-final le denoting completion occupies the head position of Perspectival AspP.When it co-occurs with the word-final le,the word-final le denoting realization occupies the head position of Viewpoint AspP.When it co-occurs with guo,guo denoting experience occupies the head position of Viewpoint AspP.